The subject of the thesis "Application of marketing in the service sector" is focused on on the analysis of internal and external marketing environment and marketing research customer satisfaction. The first part focuses on theoretical summary of basic marketing concepts, the practical part focuses on the marketing analysis and evaluation of marketing research and the last part introduces own proposals for optimization of customer satisfaction and field marketing activities.

This thesis is focused on the marketing strategy of company Hrackomat.cz. Thesis includes analysis of current company situation. Based on the marketing analysis and marketing research are made suggestions and recommendations, which leads to better financial situation of company.

This study aims at understanding the decision to buy "Made in Mozambique" products, which is important for developing marketing strategy and promoting national products. To explore the factors influencing consumers' buying decisions, means-end theory and its associated methodology provide a useful framework for understanding why people buy "Made in Mozambique" rice by characterising the relationships between the attributes, consequences associated with those attributes, and the values those consequences help reinforce. Methodology: a total of 20 consumers were interviewed. It is important to mention that only rice was used in this study. The laddering interviewing technique was then used to link these chains of meanings. Analyses and interpretation of the resulting data provide an effective complement for studying consumer purchasing motives and suggest recommendations for managerial practice and future research efforts. Summary of the study findings include: (i) Attributes: Quality, cost, national; (ii) Consequences: healthy, well-being, affordable, trust, contribution, and fulfillment; and (iii) Values: Feeling happy, longevity and self-esteem.The theoretical component of this research covers the definition and discussion of Means-end theory and consumer decision-making. / Industrial Psychology / M.A. (Industrial & Organisational Psychology)

This work examines and presents evidence for the existence of a gap in epistemological views between academic and practice marketers. Few if any academics would seem to challenge the ‘gap’ premise but the importance of any gap and its nature are issues about which little agreement exists. The intractable nature of the academic practitioner gap has a long history of interesting and diverse debate ranging from Dewey’s argument about the true nature of knowing to contributions based on epistemic adolescence, ontological differences and more pragmatic suggestions about different tribes. Others include the rigour versus relevance issue, failures in curriculum or pedagogy and a clash between modernist and postmodernist epistemologies. Polanyi’s description of tacit versus explicit knowledge further extends the debate as do issues of knowledge creation and dissemination in particular through Nonaka. Irrespective of approach actual evidence for a gap was largely based on argument rather than empirical proof. This work address that lack. The intractability of the gap suggests that it is at root, epistemic. To identity the existence of a gap in such terms a domain specific epistemic questionnaire developed by Hofer was used. A factor analytic process extracted a common set of factors for the domain of marketers. Five epistemic factors were identified. Three of these showed significant difference in orientation between practitioners and academics confirming that the theory practice gap is tangible and revealing an indication of its nature Broadly results from factor analysis with interpretation informed by factor item structure and prior theoretical debate suggests that academics and practitioners views on knowledge and how they come to know share similarities and differences. Academics are more likely to see knowledge as stable, based on established academic premise legitimized from academy. Practitioners are more likely to see knowledge as emerging from action, as dynamic and legitimised by results. Other significant findings included the emergence of dialogue as a means of closing the gap, and the emergence of a group of academics with significant practice experience termed here as, hybrids, who are located in the Academy but mostly share their epistemic views with practitioners. Correlation analysis showed that academic propensity to engage in dialogue with practice moved academic factor scores towards practitioners. This shows that dialogue has a clear role in both perpetuating the gap in its absence or reducing it. Fundamentally dialogue plays a clear role in bridging the two epistemologies and in providing for additional epistemic work. Finally a solution to bridging the gap has been proposed. The model called dialogic introspection melds dialogue and introspection to create epistemic doubt, the volition to change and a means of resolution. The model avoids prescription of what form knowledge should take but instead adopts a stance similar to more mature disciplines like medicine in which the status of academic work is enhanced in line with its relevance to practice which itself is embodied in dialogue. This approach recognizes the centrality of epistemology as shaping the conditions necessary for recognizing epistemologies as hierarchies in which the epistemology most capable of additional epistemic work is the most desirable. Such an epistemology would have the capacity to add epistemic work and reinforces Nonaka’s call for epistemology to be recognized as central to knowledge creation.

Title: Marketing research of HC Sparta Praha fans' satisfaction Objectives: The main objective of this diploma thesis is to find out how satisfied were HC Sparta Praha fans with the quality and the quantity of services that were offered them during season 2010/2011. As the contribution of the diploma thesis I will propose, according to the outcome of the marketing research, new services that can HC Sparta Praha offer to increase the fans' satisfaction. I will eventually propose how to improve current services. Methods: I used a method of personal interview, electronic survey and observing in my diploma thesis. The method of personal interview was used for the preparation of a questionnaire. I interviewed employees of HC Sparta Praha's marketing department. The method of electronic survey was used for data collecting and I used observing when working in a Customer Care Centre and when attending HC Sparta Praha's home matches. Results: I found out, that HC Sparta Praha fans were satisfied with almost all services, that the club offered them. The most important thing, when attending home match, is a sport performance and the less important is a supplementary program. In total was the worst evaluation around number 3 ("not satisfied, nor dissatisfied"). Keywords: service, marketing mix in sport,...

Marketing research is an important part of marketing, it delivers information which can be used to support decision making, for creation of plans and strategies, and also for their subsequent evaluation. Monitoring the current market, competitors and consumer behaviour, marketing research creates a competitive advantage, increases the level of certainty and reduces the level of risk to the business. It is essential that the marketing research is conducted in a professional manner. The dissertation work of Libuše Laschoberová provides readers with one document which analyses marketing research in a complex way -- it comprises of detailed information about this market and its environment in context, basic theory, brief description of historical development, selective important data, international comparison, up-to-date trends, prediction, data and opinions of marketing research agencies and experts in this field. There are also practical examples which illustrate some theoretical findings. It is focused on analysis of the contemporary state of this branch, prediction of future development and international comparison. In a practical business environment this would help to gain a deeper understanding of the market research process via the collective and structured information contained in this dissertation. The analysis was conducted independently and objectively. From a practical point of view it is an especially important section which describes the possible future trends in the market. It enables the business to adapt to these trends, create appropriate strategies and therefore prepare the firm for likely future developments. The essential part of this dissertation is based around two separate research projects which resulted in new, previously unknown data. The obtained information confirmed the assumed hypothesis and brought experts' opinions on selected issues. It can be concluded that: 1) Czech firms change their point of view on marketing research -- they are beginning to understand its benefits and use them to their own advantage. 2) Clients' requirements for quality and professionalism of marketing research are increasing. 3) The percentage of international marketing research is growing, whereas the number of projects on national level is in decline.

Competition in the mobile services industry is intense, with players in the industry offering generally similar subscription plans. Opportunities are few for differentiating one service provider from another. In the light of prior research suggesting value is multi-dimensional, the present study, which examines how these dimensions impact customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions, provides differentiation opportunities for mobile service providers through focusing on value dimensions that are important to customers. Of six perceived value dimensions examined in the present research, value for money, reputation and social value dimensions had significant effects on customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions. One way for companies in the highly commoditized mobile service industry to minimize customer defection is to enhance their relationships with customers. However, as relationship building comes with a cost, it is of interest for companies to know whether certain customer groups will reciprocate more than others with loyalty if they are satisfied. The results from the present study show customer relationship inclination, the customer attribute examined, did not moderate the relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. Finally, recent studies have differentiated measures of repurchase intentions on the basis of volition levels and have suggested that better model fit can be achieved when higher volition measures are used. Intentions-as-expectations represents the lower volition end and intentions-as-wants represents the higher volition end of intention measure. However, the present study did not find any significant differences in model fit with the different intention measures used.

This study aims at understanding the decision to buy "Made in Mozambique" products, which is important for developing marketing strategy and promoting national products. To explore the factors influencing consumers' buying decisions, means-end theory and its associated methodology provide a useful framework for understanding why people buy "Made in Mozambique" rice by characterising the relationships between the attributes, consequences associated with those attributes, and the values those consequences help reinforce. Methodology: a total of 20 consumers were interviewed. It is important to mention that only rice was used in this study. The laddering interviewing technique was then used to link these chains of meanings. Analyses and interpretation of the resulting data provide an effective complement for studying consumer purchasing motives and suggest recommendations for managerial practice and future research efforts. Summary of the study findings include: (i) Attributes: Quality, cost, national; (ii) Consequences: healthy, well-being, affordable, trust, contribution, and fulfillment; and (iii) Values: Feeling happy, longevity and self-esteem.The theoretical component of this research covers the definition and discussion of Means-end theory and consumer decision-making. / Industrial Psychology / M.A. (Industrial & Organisational Psychology)

The aim of the diploma thesis was to determine the habits and the typical behavior of the customers in the market for the bakery assortment through a marketing research. The results of the research serve to make a proposal of the innovation of the marketing mix of the selected company. The first step for the writing of this thesis was founded in the literature related with the topic. The next step was the practical part included presentation of the selected company Adélka, Inc. following by the marketing research by the method of the personal questioning. The results of the research characterized a consumer behavior of the respondents and the differences in the behavior of the individual stores. The recommendations and innovations related to the only one instrument of the marketing mix-the product.

The topic of the thesis is launching a new brand of decorative cosmetics on the Czech market. The goal is to summarize and critically evaluate the whole process and the marketing mix of the brand. The focus will be mainly on the activities realized as a part of the communication mix. The evaluating methods will be market research (sell out and competitors' activities analysis) that provides us with the information about sales, market shares and competitors. The other method will be consumer research (questionnaire, focus groups, observing) that informs us about opinions, attitudes and preferences of the consumers. Based on these findings there is a list of recommendations concerning marketing mix, which should help the brand to achieve stability and continuous development.